BIRTHDAY IN RIGA
INTRODUCTION
Good day to you, dear lovers of tourism. I decided to tell you about how my wife and I went to Riga to celebrate my birthday. I can reassure those who do not like multi-letter reports: this report will be much shorter than all my previous reports, because this time we were in Riga only 3 days, and if you count in nights, then even 2. In short, there were there from 15.11. 13 to 17.11. 13 (on the 15th, I took one day off from work, and then the weekend came). True, they reached home only on the 18th, but this will be discussed further south. It should be noted that we have already been to Rizhka 2 times before: from 2009 to 2010. and at the end of 2011 - and I wrote quite detailed reports about both of these trips (I will give links if anyone is interested), so it makes no sense to write about the same thing, so I will describe here only what was not in previous reports. I should note that in this report you are unlikely to find a lot of useful information (unlike the previous two).
Why then, you ask, am I writing it? And so, share your impressions with those who are interested. Well, who is not interested, no one forces him to read the report. I remind you just in case, otherwise there is such a category of readers, like mice from a well-known joke, who pricked, cried, but continued to eat the cactus. Yes, and jargon in this report, as in all others, will definitely be present (several of them have already slipped out even in this introduction), so those who prefer the book-newspaper language should read something else. Otherwise, don't say later that I didn't warn you. Okay, for those who have not yet closed this page, I propose to put an end to this lyrical digression and go directly to reading the report.
AIR TICKETS
We bought a / b through the well-known aviasales. They cost us for two round trip 18371 rubles, taking into account the bank tinkering, which is 0.
75% of the amount. It would probably be possible to buy tickets cheaper, but we had 2 conditions:
1) without transfers;
2) the flight there should be in the morning, and back - in the evening (well, this is to stay there longer and at the same time save on a hotel).
As a result, Eraflot flew to Riga from terminator D Sharik, and returned back as Saira to Granddaughter.
Both times we registered for flights via the Internet, which allows you to arrive at the airport a little later than 3 recommended hours before the flight, and also avoid queues for check-in if there is no luggage, but only hand luggage, as was the case in our case.
MEDICAL INSURANCE
I purchased medical insurance through the Rosgosstrakh website (I paid by card, received it for soap, printed it out, and you're done). This pleasure cost 8 Jews for two with a coverage amount of 30.000 units of the same currency.
By the way, there was infa in the press that they were going to pass a law according to which passengers without medical insurance would not be allowed to leave Russia at all, and the amount of insurance coverage should be at least 2 million rubles. If such crap is accepted, then only premium-class insurance will have to be bought on the Rosgosstrakh website, which will cost more than 2 times more than economy-class insurance.
Day 1, Friday, 15.11. thirteen
Departed 15.11. 13 at 10.25. We flew without any delays and other surprises, unlike the return flight (more on this later). We arrived at 10.15, that is, even earlier than we flew out. Anyone who has not taken a sip, how is this possible, should remember the 2-hour time difference from the last Sunday in October to the last Saturday in April and the hourly time difference in the remaining period. The plane announced that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited during the entire flight, with the exception of those purchased on board the same aircraft.
But since drinking in the morning is somehow vulgar, we fulfilled this requirement.
PASSPORT CONTROL IN RIGA
There was almost no queue for passport control, so we got through it pretty quickly. The border guard asked us about the purpose of our visit, and also asked what hotel we would be staying at. We answered that we had come for a tourist purpose and named the hotel for him, which suited him perfectly, and he did not ask any more questions.
THE ROAD FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE HOTEL AND SOMETHING ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSPORT
How to get from the airport to the city center, I already wrote in the report “The completion of the Baltic trilogy…”, but now I want to clarify something. We got this time, as in the last, on the 22nd bus. Only last time we bought tickets from the driver for 70 local kopecks (santims, that is), and this time - in the machine for 50 "kopecks". Such vending machines are located at many public transport stops. The interface language can be selected in Latvian, Russian or English.
If you plan frequent trips by transport, then it is better to take a ticket for several trips at once: it will be cheaper. The machine accepts banknotes, credit cards and coins, but… for some reason only “penny”, and 1 lat coins are no longer accepted. Having received your loot, the machine issues a thin plastic ticket, which must be applied to a special reader in the passenger compartment. Entrance to transport is allowed through any door. The road from the airport to the stop, which is located immediately after crossing the Daugava on the bridge (where, in fact, the center already begins), takes 25-30 minutes, if there are no traffic jams. And from the airport to the city there are minibuses, the fare in which costs ...even cheaper than in a bus - 45 centimes! Just don't confuse them with the yellow and green AirBaltic minibuses, which are much more expensive.
We rested at the Garden Palace 4 * hotel, which was booked through booking on a free cancellation basis.
This pleasure cost us 127.30 Jew with breakfast included. They took the simplest number - 22 squares, without any frills. It was possible, of course, to take a 48-square-square suite with a sauna (it would have cost more than 2 times more) or even a royal suite with 86-square jacuzzis (it would have cost 4 times more), but we decided not to show off.
This hostel is located in the center of Riga (old Riga), which is very convenient. The staff is friendly and welcoming. We were immediately settled in a room, despite the fact that check-in is provided there from 14.00, and we arrived there somewhere at 11. not in Lithuania, but in Latvia, it's still cool : ) ) just in case, she warned us that the rooming house had not yet been paid for, but she did not ask for any advance payment. However, we told her that we would pay off as soon as we changed the cabbage (of course, not in a botanical sense, but in a financial one).
But she told us that they also accept Jews, with whom I immediately paid off, having received change in lats, and at a good rate.
About 15 minutes after we checked in, there was a knock on the door. It was the same girl from the front desk. In her hands were 2 plates of desserts. She asked me:
- It's your birthday today, right?
I answered in the affirmative, and she said that the hotel decided to congratulate me in this way (after all, they paid attention to the date of birth in the passport! ). Of course, I would have been more pleased with a beautiful bottle (with or without a gift box), which we would love to open that evening, but still nice.
The room in this rooming house turned out to be, let's say, not quite the usual layout. Its area, as I said, was 22 squares, but it was somehow elongated from door to window (it was located opposite the door), and therefore it seemed somehow narrow.
Instead of the promised one wide bed, there were 2 singles placed side by side. Moreover, they were placed with their backs to the window, and between them and the walls there were passages of 20 cm - no more, so the bedside tables were not at the head, but at some distance from the foot. There was a refrigerator-bar in the room with fairly affordable prices, a SHARP flat-table TV, an air conditioner with a remote control, a fairly powerful hair dryer (albeit without a “cold” button), but there was no chest - it was in the reception. This chest is opened with two keys, one of which is given to the client, and the other is kept by the employee on duty at the reception. Access to the chest, as the announcement says, is provided around the clock. Such a pleasure costs 1 lats per day.
I can't help but point out two positives. The first is that the room had a very comfortable temperature: warm, but not hot.
And the second - we counted 7 outlets there, so a tee is definitely not needed there, which cannot be said about many Spanish, Italian and French bunkhouses.
SANITARY EQUIPMENT IN THE ROOM
Although the room itself turned out to be quite good, the plumbing there still leaves much to be desired, something needs to be done with it. Water in the toilet is drained only when the button is pressed: the button is released - the drain stops. The sink is rectangular in shape, about 40 x 20 cm in size, some kind of shallow (in the sense not at all deep) and, moreover, a little clogged: the water does not drain well. A safety hole is not provided, so if the tap is open, it’s better not to be distracted: of course, you won’t arrange a global flood, but on the scale of the number below it’s easy. Or maybe they did it on purpose so that the guests save water by opening the tap only a little?
: D There is no bath - there is a shower cabin, which is also not bad in principle, only water leaks in the place where the hose is attached to the shower head. Looks like the inner rubber hose is leaking. But by the way, even such plumbing is quite possible to use, especially if you come to this rooming house for only a couple of days.
ABOUT THE LOCAL CURRENCY AND UPCOMING CHANGES
If you are reading this report after 1.01. 14, skip this section: it is no longer relevant.
Yes, and it makes no sense to write in detail about the exchange of cabbage: this has already been written in detail in "The Completion of the Baltic Trilogy ... ", and the situation has not changed much since then. I will only add that it is recommended to go there with the currency in which you receive income, that is, if you receive it in rubles, there is no point in buying Jews or dollars in advance.
And from 1.01. 14, if someone else is not aware, Latvia is moving to the Jews.
Already now prices are duplicated in Jews almost everywhere, and somewhere in lats prices are equal, and in Jews - with kopecks, and somewhere vice versa. But, despite the indication of prices in different currencies, in most places only lats are accepted so far. When asked why prices are indicated in two currencies, the sellers answer, they say, this is how they morally prepare buyers for the transition to the euro currency.
Well, since at the time of our arrival only armor was still in use almost everywhere, I will quote prices in them. If someone looks at the previous reports for scrap, then the lat exchange rate is approximately the following (in a good exchanger): 100 Jews = 70 lats, 100 bucks = 51.8 lats, and for 1000 rubles they give somewhere 15.75 lats. Naturally, the course may change.
SOLDAFON MUSEUM
We were not very lucky with the weather that day: it was overcast, and even a little crap from the sky from time to time (well, what else can you expect in November?
), - so there was no particular desire to walk around the city. And then, having dined in one of the taverns of the Lido network (I already wrote about this network in detail in previous reports, but I’ll write something more to the south) and drank excellent beer there - dark Uzhavas, we decided, let’s say, to join the culture , visiting the martinet museum, which is located in the Powder Tower. There, besides, the entrance is free. The museum, however, I must say, is average. By the way, we managed to see it only about half or 2/3, and then we were asked from there. No, we didn’t riot there and didn’t try to steal the exhibits, just that day in the museum, on the occasion of some national holiday, a solemn Bukhara was planned at the local gerons in soldier uniforms, and a whole battalion of them gathered there (not literally, of course). All other visitors were escorted out in connection with this.
By the way, when we were leaving, I saw a sign in Latvian that the museum was open only until 16:15 that day (I don’t know Latvian, but it looks like Lithuanian, from which I still remember something (see “Completion Baltic trilogy…”), so I understood the essence of what was written).
A LYRICAL DIRECTION ABOUT THE LOTS
Toilets in Riga have already been described in detail by me in previous reports. True, in one of them it was said that toilets in shopping centers are free there. So, now they have become conditionally free there (although I don’t know if they are everywhere). In general, to enter there, you need to drop a coin of 20 centimes. However, if there is neither an urgent need nor a desire to pay, you can simply wait until someone comes out (and you won’t have to wait even a minute), and calmly enter.
RESTAURANT ROSENGRALS
In the evening we went to celebrate my holiday in this not the cheapest medieval style restaurant.
This restaurant has already been described in detail in my previous reports, so I will only add that the prices there have changed a little, of course, not less, and, as it seemed to me, the menu has also changed. At least, I did not see there this time poultry liver salad, as well as black cod. Or maybe he was just not paying attention. But be that as it may, we sat there and this time quite well.
Also, on the occasion of the holiday, on the 15th and 16th (as on other days, I don’t know), the so-called “cosmonaut show” was held on the Latvieš u strē lnieku square (in front of the occupation museum). It was carried out with an interval of 20 minutes, consisted of 2 parts and lasted about 5 minutes (2.5 minutes each part).
It began with the leader dressed as a donkey (and maybe a hare; the astronauts wore rabbit ears under their helmets, the leader’s costume also had long ears, but the food looked much more like a donkey’s than a hare’s) climbed on a special on the lift to the stage built on the square, along with several dudes in fake spacesuits, then the lighting and the wind tunnel turned on, and these dudes began to alternately jump on it to the “Space Symphony”, then to one of two compositions of the Zodiac group, known since Soviet times ". The pipe threw them up to a height of 5 - 6 meters, then they began to slowly descend, tumbling in the air and making various pretzels ...A pretzel in a spacesuit ...just like Alexander Laertsky in the song "The Door". Okay, jokes are jokes, but the show is pretty cool, and therefore there were so many people around that it was not crowded.
The second part of the show differed from the first in that these kosmars flew with the help of either plastic or fabric long flexible pipes that fluttered in the air. From below, handles were attached to these pipes, for which, in fact, these kosmari held on. By the way, on the tubes, also carried upwards by the flow from the wind tunnel, they did not fly so high.
Day 2, Saturday, 16.11. thirteen
BREAKFAST IN THE HOTEL
The first place we went that day was, of course, to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, which takes place there from 7 to 10 o'clock on weekdays and from 8 to 11 on weekends.
The breakfast is quite varied: scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, fried bacon, pig sausages, pancakes, small sausages, various cuts of ham and cheese, cereals, canned and fresh fruits (there is a board and a knife to cut the salad yourself) , marinated fish, several types of herring, small pickled tomatoes and mushrooms, olives and black olives, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. There were all kinds of sauces there: mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc. From baking - croissants and some other cakes with chocolate or jam. There were also jams, butter, honey. There were several types of bread, including, of course, Riga bread. And all this is quite edible. From drinks - coffee, several varieties of tea in bags, as well as orange and apple juice from a bag, kefir, milk (the last two, however, are considered food, not drinks).
MUSEUM OF MEDICINE
The next place we visited that day was the Museum of Medicine.
And the entrance there that day was also free! However, tickets there are already quite inexpensive: only one and a half lats for adults. The museum, it should be noted, is quite large, it occupies as many as 4 floors. So walking along it can be a little tiring. But the museum is quite interesting! There are medical exhibits from the time of ancient medicine and almost to the present day.
The first floor is dedicated to ancient medicine. The exhibits there mainly consist of paintings or compositions representing scenes of medical care using the means and manipulations known at that time. Damaged skulls and bones with traces of fusion are also presented. In the hall where the bust of Avicenna stands, there are models of simple tools that he used during his lifetime.
The second floor is dedicated to medieval medicine.
There are compositions of the then pharmacies, how they looked inside, statues of psychos standing in very cramped cages, because there was not enough space even to sit down (crazy people were not treated in those days, but simply put in such cages to protect them from them around), newer medical instruments, and, o5, medical-themed paintings with comments on what exactly is happening on them. By the way, these comments are sometimes given only in Latvian, but are often duplicated in English, and somewhere even in Russian.
The third floor represents medicine of the 18th – 20th centuries. There are already presented not only drills with a pedal drive, but also electron microscopes, old X-ray machines, pressure chambers and much more.
And, finally, on the 4th floor there are various things from Latvian medicine, as well as from space medicine.
And not only medicine: there are also other items related to space, but not directly related to medicine (suits, food packaging, etc. ).
Also there, either on the 3rd or on the 4th floor, various mutant embryos are presented in flasks with an aqueous solution of H-COH, human organs in the context, both healthy and affected by all sorts of sores, for example, a stomach ulcer, liver affected by cirrhosis. And somewhere else there were two bottles with lungs: one with the pinkish lungs of a non-smoker, the other with the black lungs of smoked smoke. I looked at these lungs and was once again glad that I did not smoke.
THE ROAD TO THE MAJOR LIDO CENTER
After the museum of medicine, we first sat in a cozy restaurant "Flying Frog" (Lidoioš a varde), which we remember from the trip of 2009-2010. and which I have already described in detail in the corresponding report, and then we went for a walk around the city.
We looked at what they sell in local chicken coops, in one of them they took a glass of mulled wine, which they slowly drank there, at the tables (slowly - because it is hot), and then decided to go see what kind of center Lido is so large. By the way, it is located on the Krasta embankment. If you stand on the Daugava embankment with your back to the river and facing the Museum of Occupation (Latvieš u strē lnieku square), then you need to go to the right side. At the tram stop, we asked two local pensioners how to get there, and they explained to us that we need to go there with a change: first, 2 stops on any tram, except for the 5th, and then you need to change to the 7th tram and go another several stops. They also recommended that we drive 2 stops as a hare, because, according to them, there should not have been any control that evening, but on the 7th tram they strongly recommended taking tickets in order to avoid trouble.
They also said that they themselves were going to the same Lido, and offered to follow them. But ...we are not looking for easy ways: we decided to walk to the stop of the 7th tram. No, well, is it true that there are some 2 stops to go there? We went out, in general, to the embankment, we go towards Lido and suddenly we notice that there are no tram tracks parallel to the embankment. As it turned out later, the tram then turns left, and then o5 to the right and goes at some distance from the embankment. In a good way, we had to go back, but we decided to go straight ahead. As a result, we walked for about 4 km, first along the dark-dumb embankment, then we crossed the road parallel to it and went along the other side - more lively. Well, what, a little sports walking won’t hurt either: everything is some kind of protection against excess weight gain, which is facilitated by attending Lido. All in all, we got there in less than an hour.
LIDO CENTER
And the Lido center itself, I must say, looks cool like that, both outside and inside. Outside there is a luminous (in the dark) mill and luminous figurines of deer, hares and other animals. Beautiful, in general. The room there is 3-storey, and the 2 upper floors are different from the lower one by glazing: they are more modern, or something. But the "ancient" wrapping is somehow more to our liking. Only on Saturday evening it was not very easy to find a place there (and on any floor), but we soon found it. Right next to the stage where local musicians performed songs in Latvian, English and even Italian. At first this place seemed noisy to me, and I even wanted to find another one, but then, after we had a glass or two of the dark Horror, we began to like this place. In front of the stage, the local audience arranged a dance floor, and these dances were also fun to watch.
In general, the atmosphere there was very cheerful. We sat there for 3 hours, and returned home at 11-something in the evening by taxi, which cost us 9 lats.
SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE LIDO NETWORK
I have already written about this network in detail in previous reports, but I want to add something. What are the main advantages of these establishments? For me personally, this is an inexpensive and at the same time tasty meal and cool Uzhavas beer. However, it should be noted that not all establishments of this network have this beer. But where exactly it is, it is in the institution described in the previous paragraph, and in the very center of Riga on the street. Tirgonu. A half-liter mug of this beer costs 1.40 lats there, just like at the end of 2011, but it is more profitable to take it in liter mugs - for such a beer they will only charge 2.50 lats. And there is also a rather cheap tequilon Olmeca Ag - only 1.80 lats per serving.
Day 3, Sunday, 17.11. thirteen
WEATHER CHANGE
On this day, we would also go to some museum, if not for ...the weather.
And it turned out to be very sunny that day, and therefore very suitable for beautiful pictures. It got a little colder, and the wind picked up. But still nice. So it was a pity to waste time on museums. In general, on that day, all they did was walk around the city, take pictures of everything that was possible, and take pictures themselves, of course. Time flew by pretty quickly (and it gets dark quite early in November), and it's time for us to go to the airport. Eh, if we knew about the flight delay, we would hang out somewhere else.
BREAK WITH DEPARTURE
Back, as already mentioned, we flew "Saira", the flight was at 19.30, we arrived at the airport 2 hours before departure, while pre-registering for the flight through the Internet. It would be possible, of course, to arrive there later, but you never know, suddenly the bus gets stuck in a traffic jam or some other crap happens ...And crap really happened, but ...the one because of which it was just not necessary to rush to the report.
Upon arrival, we calmly went through security, customs and passport control and began to wait for our flight in the waiting room, turning on one film in the electronic book, which, according to our calculations, should have ended just in time for the boarding gate. Boarding usually starts 40-45 minutes before departure, but neither at 18.45, nor at 19.00, nor at 19.15 Saira invited anyone to board, although the board indicated that the departure was still scheduled for 19.30. And then the information appeared on the scoreboard that the flight was delayed by 2 hours. But as a result, he was detained for 3 hours. As the employees explained to us, this was due to the fact that the plane from Moscow had not yet arrived. And then we learned that there had been a plane crash in Kazan, in connection with which, in Domik, they began to intensively double-check all the planes that were supposed to take off from there (and ours, it seems, should also have flown from there, although we ourselves flew to Vnuchka ").
Well, well, I had to watch more films and drink beer from a dutik (it was a little expensive in a bar). By the way, about...
As I wrote in previous reports, the duty cycle in Riga is never cheap. But since we had some armor left, they had to be spent urgently. It was possible, of course, to use the services of an exchanger that was available in the sterile zone, but the rate there was not just predatory, but super-predatory. Therefore, we took there a liter bottle of Martell cognac (41.50 lats), tequilon Olmeca Ag (18.50 lats), Sheridans liqueur (20.29 lats), as well as a couple of small bottles of local strong drink of 100 ml (2.60 lats each). Thus, all the lats were safely shaved off, and I paid the difference by crediton (if I had paid some other cash cabbage, they could have given change in lats, which would have been completely inopportune).
FLIGHT BACK
Finally, the long-awaited aircraft arrived, and we took off in the direction of our vast country.